Author Website

Commentary Type

Thread

Abstract

I discuss three themes related to Kujala’s target article. First, the wealth of emerging data on cognitive studies in dogs will surely show that dogs have a very rich repertoire of cognitive processes, for most of which we find homologues in humans. Second, understanding the internal states that mediate social behaviors, such as emotions, requires us to consider both a dog’s behaviors with other dogs, and the emergence of new behavioral patterns in interaction with humans. Third, all of this will certainly narrow the range of justifications for denying that dogs have subjective experiences of emotions.

Author Biography

Ralph Adolphs is a social neuroscientist who studies emotions in humans. Bren Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Biology at California Institute of Technology, Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair and Director at Caltech Brain Imaging Center, Adolphs is the co-author of The neuroscience of emotions in humans and animals (Princeton University Press, forthcoming, 2018).http://emotion.caltech.edu